1. How does Nabokov open his autobiography?
(a) With a short meditation on the periods of inexistence before birth and after death.
(b) With a short review of Russian history.
(c) With a short story about the birth of his son.
(d) With an examination of his early childhood.

2. What does Nabokov investigate about his family?
(a) Their relationship to the tsar.
(b) Their country of origin.
(c) The family's coat of arms.
(d) Their religion.

3. After his father's death, to where does Nabokov's widowed mother move?
(a) Berlin.
(b) London.
(c) Prague.
(d) Paris.

4. What is the common name for Boletusoften?
(a) Tropical hibiscus.
(b) Blue grass.
(c) Tube mushrooms.
(d) Red geraniums.

5. What does the rain cause to grow on the estate?
(a) Mushrooms.
(b) Geraniums.
(c) Hibiscus.
(d) Grass.

Short Answer Questions

1. It is unusual for aristocrats in Russian to be hanged, and as a child, what does Nabokov call the trail through the woods on the estate where a previous owner had been hanged?

2. What does Nabokov claim stems more from an ecological longing for the place of his birth, than in his family's loss of property and station?

3. What is one of his other memories?

4. What does Nabokov reveal about his mind?

5. What properties do the Nabokovs own until the Russian revolution?

(see the answer key)

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